Dr. Joe is a nationally recognized scholar on suicidal behavior among Black Americans, particularly regarding the role of firearms as a risk factor, and is expanding the evidence base for effective practice with Black boys and young men. His research focuses on Black adolescents’ mental health service use patterns, epidemiology and prevention of Black suicidal behavior, and family-based interventions to prevent urban Black American adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors.
As founding Director of the Race and Opportunity Lab, which examines race, opportunity, and social mobility with an emphasis on informing policies, interventions, and intra-professional practice to lessen ethnic inequality in adolescents’ healthy transition to adulthood. The lab leading community science project is HomeGrown STL, which is a multi-systemic placed-based capacity building intervention to enhance upward mobility opportunities and health of Black males ages 12-29 years in the St. Louis region. His epistemological work focuses on the concept of race in medical and social sciences.